Facebook has removed multiple pages, groups and accounts originating from Thailand, Russia, Ukraine and Honduras for being involved in “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” on the platform and Instagram. The company purged these accounts following an internal investigation along with help from local security forces in these areas in certain cases. Divisive posts on Thai politics It removed 12 Facebook accounts and 10 Facebook pages originating in Thailand, which focused Thailand and the US. It said that about 38,000 people followed at least one or more of these pages. In its investigation, Facebook found that some of the activity on these pages was linked to a Thailand based person associated New Eastern Outlook - a Russian government-funded journal based in Moscow. It is worth noting that according to a report, New Eastern Outlook had a total of 19,432 likes an average of 49.29 likes per post. It removed these accounts because: People behind this small network used fake accounts to create fictitious personas and run pages. These pages shared potentially divisive posts on Thai politics, geopolitical issues like US-China relations, protests in Hong Kong, and criticism of democracy activists in Thailand. New Eastern Outlook DFRLab accessed New Eastern Outlook's Facebook before it got taken down, and found that it had three managers based in Thailand, and one each in Russia and Greece. It found out from New Eastern Outlook's about section that the page tried presenting itself as a neutral and unbiased news outlet, however, the content present on the page told an…
